Border apprehensions down to 1975 levels

The apprehensions of undocumented immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped so much this year that the Border Patrol says they’ve toppled to 1975 levels.

A story in the Los Angeles Times Sunday says the trend began a few years ago. “The same time the federal government started fortifying the border with more agents, fencing and infrastructure.”

The U.S. economy’s downward slide has had an impact on illegal immigration, too, the story says.

“From October 2008 through February of this year, the Border Patrol arrested 195,399 illegal immigrants, a 24 percent decrease from the same period last year,” the story says. “The apprehension level is on track to dip to about 550,000 for this federal fiscal year, the lowest level since 1975, when 596,796 immigrants were caught, according to Border Patrol statistics.”

But will these lower levels continue to hold?

The story doesn’t address this question.

One deported immigrant gave reporter Richard Marosi a glimpse of what Mexican immigrants faced long before this U.S. economic crisis and will face long after it’s over.

When Marosi asked whether he’d heard about the U.S. crisis, “the young man didn’t answer. Instead he put his hand to his lips and mimicked eating a torta.”